Gradient Nails

The "Fade" is a pretty popular thing in clothes right now.  This trent is one in which the color fades gradually from one color to another.  It has also become pretty popular on nails.  On nails, I have heard it referred to as "the fade", "the gradient manicure" and "sponging".  There are several different methods to do this.  I have tried many of them, and below I am going to show you the method I found the easiest.

The "fade" on a dress.

The fade on my nails!

Cool right?  It is actually easier then it looks. 

Supplies: 

3-4 nail polish colors.  Do not use quick dry formula. 

Makeup sponges

q-tips

Polish remover

Base and top coat

Small cup of water

Directions:

1.  Paint base coat on your nails. After base coat is dry, paint your lightest color over entire nail.

2.  After the first color coat has dried, take all your colors and line them up from lightest to darkest. Unscrew the caps of each color. You want to have everything ready so that you can work quickly.   Take your makeup sponge and dip it in some water. Squeeze 80% of the water out of the sponge. This is very important because if you do not get the sponge wet, it will soak up too much polish and the polish will not go on evenly.

3.  Start at the edge of the makeup wedge and paint a thin strip of your darkest color.  Paint a thin strip of each color, from dark to light.  Go over each color once more.

4.  Take your sponge and press it firmly on a piece of paper or paper towel. You will notice that the more you press the sponge, the more the colors blend. Next step, press sponge onto nail.  You can press twice at slightly different spots if you notice the color is not blended enough.  Make sure you press with firm even pressure.

5.  You will notice that the polish gets all over your skin, and has the texture of the sponge. The skin issue is easily cleaned up by using a q-tip dipped in polish remover. The texture issue is fixed by putting a top coat over.

My nails before cleanup. 

6.  Paint your top coat on and you are all done! 

Other tips:

Do not use quick dry polish for your gradient. It will dry before you have a chance to get it onto your nail.  

I found this a little more difficulty to do with metallic polishes, because most of them also dry rather quickly.  

The wet sponge is very important to make this come out correctly.

Remember to press the sponge firmly against nail so that you get the edges of your nail as well. 

For this manicure, I used the following polishes.

Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat

Revlon Tropical Temptation

Revlon Cherries in the Snow

mystery polish I have had for years

Revlon Valentine

Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat

Nautical Nail Art

Hello everyone,

Earlier in the week, I was super excited because this week are going to put my brothers new sailboat "Riders on the storm" in the water for the first time!  This inspired some nautical themed nail polish.

A sailboat and anchor! I love accent nails! 

The base color for this polish is Revlon "Fashionista" It is a wonderful blue-green shade.  Not quick dry.  Revlon formulas always apply smoothly and this polish was full coverage in 2 coats. The brush for revlon polishes is easy to work with and medium thickness.  

To paint the sailboat, I started with the red bottom. I used my acrylic paints.  After painting the bottom, I made a straight line using the brown from the base of the boat to the top. 

After that, I just painted little triangles on either side of the pole with white for the sails. 

When you are done, you can go back and touch it up with any of the colors you want. I thought I painted the sail on the left a little too big, so I went in with my nail art brush and put a little more nail polish over that area. I also accidentally got some white paint on my index finger nail, and I used the regular polish to cover that up as well. 

Blueberry Jam nail

Today I went to my parents house to make jam with my mom. We made blueberry and raspberry flavors. It looks delicious and I can't wait to eat it tomorrow for breakfast.  My manicure was inspired by our blueberry jam. Enjoy! 

                                                   

Blueberries on the vine!

For this manicure I used NYC Quick Dry in Uptown as the base color on both thumbs.
The next part is the secret to doing this manicure. Instead of nail polish for the design, I actually used acrylic paint. Thats right, regular acrylic paint like you can buy in the craft store. It is safe and non-toxic. If you mess up, just wash your hands with soap and water and it comes right off! Cool right? It is actually much more opaque than regular nail polish so you only have to do one coat. It is also a lot more firm, so it will not run while you use it .

My cheepo acrylic paints that I bought at the craft store for $4

I started off by making the dark blue dots for the blueberries. I used the end of the paintbrush without bristles, and just dipped it in the darker blue paint then pushed it against the nail with different pressures to make circles of different sizes. I used the paintbrush end because my dotting tool didn't make the circles as big as I wanted them. Next, I made a smaller light blue dot inside each darker blue one. 

After that, I painted the vines. I used the darker brown paint and put some accents in with the lighter paint. Then, I used green to paint some leaves.

I used the blueberry thumb as an accent nail, and painted the other nails with Sur La Pointe Des Pedis Tip Toe polish in Navy. I got this in Old Navy last year. I think it is from the Sara Jessica Parker line. It looks black in the pictures but it is actually a really beautiful navy color. It also has great application with full coverage color in just one coat. 

I also painted my moms nails for her!

The color is Revlon Teak Rose. As usual, I used Revlon Quick Dry top and base coat.

Paint Drip Manicure

Hey everyone!

My my nail art design today was inspired by an awesome video tutorial from Juliatmll on youtube!
Click below to watch.  Above is my finished manicure.  Below are some other helpful hints on how to create this on your own.

1.  If you read my post yesterday,  I am sure that you saw the ugly white polish after one coat. It looked pretty streaky, but much better after two. Even though there were still a few streaks, I didn't paint a third white coat, because I knew I was going to paint the drips on top and I didn't want to make the polish too thick.  After I applied the colored polish, the few white streaks were not noticeable.

2. I used a nail dotting tool for the bottom of the drops.  You can see what mine looks in the picture below.  It has a nail art brush on one end, and the dotting tool on the other.  If you don't want to buy one, you can just use a pin head or bobby pin.  I got my dotting tool at Sally's Beauty Supply. It was only a few dollars.

3. To draw the lines, I actually used a thin paintbrush which I got from the craft store. It is meant for acrylics. It is long and thin, and i found that this kind of brush was easier to make straight lines with than the shorter brush on the end of my dotting tool. 

For this manicure, I used Orly French Tip in Softest White, Cover Girl Boundless Color in Candy Apple, Kiss Nail art paint in Beach Yellow, NYC In a Minute Quick Dry in East Village, and NYC In a Minute Quick Dry in High Line Green.  As usual, I used Revlon quick dry base and top coat. 

On another note, the first finger I painted was the red thumbs.  I think it looks like dripping blood. Maybe I will use part of this for a halloween manicure. Do you think it would creep out my patients?  

Favorite nail and hand care products

Hello everyone!  I hope you enjoyed my first post.

As many of you know, I work in the healthcare field.  That means that I am washing my hands or using alcohol based hand sanitizer at least 30 times a day, if not more.  All that washing and alcohol can make skin and nails very dry. So, how do I keep my hands and nails looking beautiful?  I have several tips to share with everyone.  My first secret to getting strong nails is.....

Thats right, prenatal vitamins. If you want to look healthy, you actually have to BE healthy.  I have been taking prenatal vitamins for the past 3-4 months, and they make my nails (and hair) grow faster, longer, and stronger. 

My second secret for healthy nails and healthy cuticles is J.R. Watkins hand and cuticle salve.  I love this stuff.  I put it on constantly. It is super greasy and super moisturizing. It stays on your skin much longer than regular old hand lotion. I feel like it creates a barrier between my skin and those awful hand sanitizers I am constantly using, which means it keeps my hands from becoming a chapped mess. I also put it on my feet at night before I go to bed.  It is also all natural, which I love.  You can buy it online here J.R. Watkins Apothecary.  I don't buy mine online because I don't want to pay shipping and handling, so every few months I make my boyfriend drive an hour to take me to the nearest Cracker Barrel so that I can stock up. They sell all kinds of cool stuff in their little shops, including this. 

My third secret is proper cuticle care. Never cut your cuticles, ever! When my cuticles are looking a little overgrown, I just apply a little dab of Sally Hansen Cuticle Remover and let them sit for a few min. This product is nice because the tip is actually angled, and can also work as a cuticle pusher to push them back after they have been softened up a little.  Even when I go to the nail salon, I never let them cut my cuticles with a cuticle nipper. Thats how you get nail infections!

My last secret to getting healthy nails is using the proper nail file. Generally I keep my nails on the fairly short side because of my job.  Long nails means lots of extra places for bacteria to get stuck.  When my nails get too long, I cut them with nail clippers, then I file them with this Revlon crystal nail file.  Crystal nail files are supposed to reduce splitting and pealing of nails by providing a smoother edge than metal or emery board files. They are also more hygenic, as they are not porous and therefore do not contain all those little spaces for bacteria and fungus to get trapped.  Crystal nail files also generally last much longer than other types of nail files, so although they may cost more upfront, you wont need another file for at least a year.

What do you think of my nail care routine? Do you have any products you love to use? What are your secrets to healthy nails and hands? Tell me in the comments!